A police car is parked near the site where flooding claimed the lives of a pregnant woman and her son whose car was swept away Thursday, July 11, 2019 in Boyertown, Pa. Douglass Township Police Chief John says the car was swept down the Manatawny Creek for about a half-mile on Thursday night, while the woman was on the phone with emergency officials. The call then dropped, and emergency workers found the car in a tributary nearly five hours later. The names of the woman and child have not been released.APMichael Yoder/Reading Eagle via AP

A firefighter who was put in contact with the woman was able to stay on the phone with her for several minutes before they lost contact, Douglass Township Police Chief John Dzurek told The Reading Eagle .

The last thing she told the firefighter before the call dropped was that the nose of her car was starting to go down into the water, he said.

Numerous flooded roadways made it difficult for responders to reach her during the ordeal, Dzurek told the newspaper. Emergency workers found the car in a tributary nearly five hours later.

The woman was identified Friday as Pamela Vera Snyder, 31, and her son, Preston Dray. Authorities have given conflicting reports on the boy’s age as either 8 or 9.

The flooding was caused by a series of storms that socked the Northeast with heavy rains and strong winds that tarted falling Thursday and continued through early Friday. The storms quickly intensified, causing minor to major flash flooding in several states and possibly spawning a tornado in a southern New Jersey town.

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